Catholic Bishops Urge ‘Campaign’ for Religious Freedom

Source: NY Times

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a proclamation on Thursday calling for every priest, parish and layperson to participate in “great national campaign” to defend religious liberty, which they said is “under attack, both at home and abroad.”

In particular they urged every diocese to hold a “Fortnight for Freedom” during the two weeks leading up to the Fourth of July, for parishioners to study, pray and take public action to fight what they see as the government’s attempts to curtail religious freedom.

“To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other,” said the statement, issued by the bishops ad hoc committee on religious freedom.

For more than half a year, the bishops have put the religious liberty issue front and center, but it has not yet galvanized the Catholic laity and has even further polarized the church’s liberal and conservative flanks. In an election year, liberal Catholics have accused the bishops of making the church an arm of the Republican Party in the drive to defeat President Obama — an accusation that the bishops reject.

12. To the Catholic Bishops: You have religious freedom but you don't have the right to put your

13. Although I disagree with the premise that their religious freedoms are under attack....

I'm fine with letting them engage in this campaign when they begin to pay property taxes on all their property. I can only imagine what the property taxes on St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York will bring. And of course they must be treated the same, for tax purposes, as any other organization, albeit as a non-profit. Their members and others, however, can no longer deduct their contributions or gifts to the church from their income.